Author

  • John Paull

    • Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford
    • United Kingdom

Abstract

Organic agriculture is now a worldwide phenomenon which is practiced in 160 countries. The Organics Olympiad presents 12 indices of global organics leadership, each at three levels. It yields 26 countries as global organics leaders, and reveals that organics leadership is diversely distributed across countries, large and small, rich and poor, developed and less so, as well as across linguistic and cultural barriers. Australia leads the world in organic agriculture hectares, Finland leads in organic wild culture hectares, China leads in organic aquaculture hectares, and Portugal leads in organic forest hectares. Germany leads in biodynamic hectares, as well as with the number of members of the International Federation of Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), and in the publishing of organics research papers. India is in the lead position for the number of organic producers, the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) leads in terms of the percentage of agricultural land dedicated as organic, and Denmark leads with the value of organics consumption per capita. Uruguay leads in the relative increase in organic hectares over the past decade, and Japan leads in the number of organics certifiers. The overall global organics leaders, on the basis of aggregated scores, are Germany, India and Denmark, in positions one, two and three, respectively. The successful global diffusion of organics, as demonstrated in this study, means that leadership lessons are available from a diversity of social, geographical, political, and ecological situations for both existing and aspiring organics leaders.

Keywords

References

  • Biofach. (2010). Organics Brazil trebles exports in three years. Biofach Newsletter, 235(29 October).
  • Biofach. (2011). Global Organic Sales Approaching 60 Billion US Dollars. Biofach Newsletter, 239(7 January).
  • Boedeker, H. (2002). Allen fans will want to see this: A TCM documentary mixes film clips with comments from the movie director. Orlando Sentinel, 4 May, E.1.
  • Chamling, P. (2010). Sikkim Organic Mission 2015. Gangtok, India: Food Security & Agriculture Development Department, Government of Sikkim.
  • Curl, C. L., Fenske, R. A., & Elgehun, K. (2003). Organophosphorus pesticide exposure of urban and suburban preschool children with organic and conventional diets. Environmental Health Perspectives , 111(3): 377-382.
  • Demeter. (2011). Certification-Statistics: February 2011. Darmstadt, Germany: Demeter International.
  • FAO. (2001). Codex alimentarius-organically produced food. Rome: FAO/WHO Food Standards Program Codex Alimentarius Commission, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome.
  • Hole, G., Perkins, A. J., Wilson, J. D., Alexander, I. H., Grice, P. V., & Evans, A. D. (2005). Does organic farming benefit biodiversity? Biological Conservation , 122(1): 113-130.
  • ICROFS. (2011). Research Affiliation: Country/Organization/Project. Foulum, Denmark: International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems (ICROFS). Retrieved 13 April 2011, from http://orgprints.org.
  • IFOAM. (2005). Brazil Government Sets Sights High for Organic Agriculture (press release). Bonn: International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements.
  • IFOAM. (2011). Organic Directory Online. Retrieved 21 April 2011, from www.ifoam.org.
  • Lairon, D. (2010). Nutritional quality and safety of organic food. A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 30(1): 33-41.
  • Lichfield, J. (2007). France goes green with organic farming pledge. The Independent.
  • Nielsen. (2005). Consumer attitudes towards organic foods, a global consumer survey: AC Nielsen.
  • Paull, J. (2008). Climate change, carbon offsets and certified organic forestry (UN FAO Workshop on Organic Agriculture and Climate Change). Proceedings: 16th IFOAM Organic World Congress.
  • Paull, J. (2010). From France to the World: The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM). Journal of Social Research & Policy , 1(2): 93-102.
  • Paull, J. (2011). Attending the First Organic Agriculture Course: Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course at Koberwitz, 1924. European Journal of Social Sciences , 21(1): 64-70.
  • Setboonsarng, S., & Lavado, R. F. (2008). Does organic agriculture lead to better health among organic and conventional farmers in Thailand? An investigation of health expenditure among organic and conventional farmers in Thailand (ADB Working Paper No. 129). Tokyo: Asian Development Bank Institute.
  • Soil Association. (2009). Organic by 2050 (press release). Bristol: Soil Association.
  • Soil Association. (2011). The Lazy an of Europe: Wake up to what Europe can teach the UK about backing organic food and farming. Bristol: Soil Association.
  • USDA. (2009). National Organic Program. Washington: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
  • Vijayan, V. S. (2007). Kerala State Organic Farming Policy, Strategy and Action Plan. Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala State Biodiversity Board.
  • Willer, H., & Kilcher, L. (2010). The World of Organic Agriculture: Statistics and Emerging Trends 2010. Bonn, Germany: International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM); Frick, Switzerland: Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL).
  • Willer, H., & Kilcher, L. (2011). The World of Organic Agriculture: Statistics and Emerging Trends 2011: Bonn: International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM); Frick, Switzerland: Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL).
  • Willer, H., & Yussefi, M. (2000). Organic Agriculture World-Wide: Statistics and Perspectives. Bad Durkheim, Germany: Stiftung Ökologie & Landbau (SÖL).
  • Willer, H., & Yussefi, M. (Eds.). (2001). Organic Agriculture Worldwide 2001: Statistics and Future Prospects. Bad Durkheim, Germany: Stiftung Ökologie & Landbau (SÖL).

Downloads

No downloads have been recorded for this article yet. Figures appear here once readers begin downloading the full text.

How to Cite

Paull, J. (2011). Organics Olympiad 2011: Global Indices of Leadership in Organic Agriculture. Journal of Social and Development Sciences, 1(4), 144-150. https://doi.org/10.22610/jsds.v1i4.638

Share this article

License

Copyright (c) 2011 John Paull (Author)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Author (s) should affirm that the material has not been published previously. It has not been submitted and it is not under consideration by any other journal. At the same time author (s) need to execute a publication permission agreement to assume the responsibility of the submitted content and any omissions and errors therein. After submission of revised paper in the light of suggestions of the reviewers, the editorial team  edits and formats manuscripts to bring uniformity and standardization in published material.

This work will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) and under condition of the license, users are free to read, copy, remix, transform, redistribute, download, print, search or link to the full texts of articles and even build upon their work as long as they credit the author for the original work. Moreover, as per journal policy author (s) hold and retain copyrights without any restrictions.

Keywords

Section

Research Paper

Published in

Vol. 1 No. 4 (2011) Workplace Participation, Organics & Research-Driven Growth View issue contents

Published

2011-05-15

Submissions

Have research to publish? Journal of Social and Development Sciences welcomes submissions.

Make a Submission